The Saint Thomas Outpatient Neurosurgical Center has been named in multiple lawsuits by fungal meningitis patients. / AP / File

Written by

Walter F. Roche Jr.

The Tennessean

One of the local victims of the fungal meningitis outbreak spent more than two months in the hospital and “her life has been forever changed,” according to a federal lawsuit filed on her behalf.

The suit was filed Friday for Sondra Lemberg of Nashville in U.S. District Court and charges that she suffered multiple strokes after being injected with fungus-tainted spinal steroids at Saint Thomas Outpatient Neurosurgical Center.

Lemberg was one of two newly identified victims of the 2012 outbreak to emerge as a deadline approaches for filing legal claims in the outbreak that took the lives of 16 patients treated in Tennessee.

The other was Annette Ruhl, 75, of Hendersonville, who was injected at the same facility.

“She continues to suffer as a result of the defendants’ negligent misconduct,” the 55-page complaint filed on her behalf states.

Also filed Friday were suits by the families of three victims who died in the outbreak.

Wayne Reed of Nashville, who suffers from Lou Gehrig’s disease, lost his wife and caretaker, Diana, while Becky Ragland of Kentucky lost her husband, J.W.

A suit also was filed for S. Collette Rybinski, whose husband died in the outbreak.

Legislation proposed

The flurry of court action comes as legislation was proposed in Congress with bipartisan support to give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearer authority to regulate drug compounders, like the now-defunct Massachusetts firm that has been blamed for producing the steroid responsible for the outbreak.

The measure would create a new category of licensed drug producers and give the FDA the authority to inspect and regulate them.

The House bill, which is similar to one awaiting a Senate vote, won praise from Republican U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, noting the outbreak began a year ago. Blackburn is the vice chair of the committee that will be voting on the bill.

But the measure drew criticism from Dr. Michael Carome of Public Citizen, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group, who said the bill would authorize a second tier of drug manufacturers not subject to the same level of scrutiny as major drug manufacturers.

“We consider these second-tier manufacturers to be substandard,” Carome said.

The suits filed Friday by Nashville attorney Randall Kinnard name as defendants the Saint Thomas outpatient center, the owners of the now-defunct New England Compounding Center and a drug testing company. They charge the defendants with negligence, civil conspiracy and violation of health and product liability laws.

Lemberg, who contracted fungal meningitis in addition to suffering strokes, was hospitalized from Sept. 20 through Nov. 28, according to the 55-page complaint.

Ruhl, according to her suit, was hospitalized for three weeks with fungal meningitis after getting a single steroid shot on Sept. 13.